IT departments have for years created sets of storage devices that are placed into desktop and laptop computers. For the most part, creating these storage devices with unique sets of software and data is, at best, a laborious and error prone process. Personal computers carried into the field are notorious for disk drive failures. Attempts to overcome this problem have been dealt with through the use of portable backup solutions ranging from the user transporting a portable storage device to the use of software on a bootable CD or DVD which then accesses a dataset over a network to rebuild the failed storage device.
For some large companies, replacement of thousands of laptops a year and the creation of thousands of replacement storage devices is commonplace. Some large companies attempt to reduce their workloads by requiring the PC vendors to place a corporate image on storage devices contained inside desktops and laptops that are purchased. While alleviating the companies from placing a corporate image onto newly purchased computers, this still requires companies to install unique software programs and unique data sets for each new computer. This also does not address the problem of creating storage devices for failed units.